Definition of motive

• n. - That which moves; a mover.
• n. - That which incites to action; anything prompting or exciting to choise, or moving the will; cause; reason; inducement; object.
• n. - The theme or subject; a leading phrase or passage which is reproduced and varied through the course of a comor a movement; a short figure, or melodic germ, out of which a whole movement is develpoed. See also Leading motive, under Leading.
• n. - That which produces conception, invention, or creation in the mind of the artist in undertaking his subject; the guiding or controlling idea manifested in a work of art, or any part of one.
• a. - Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move; as, a motive argument; motive power.
• v. t. - To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.